This day in history
Today is Tuesday, Oct. 25, the 298th day of 2022. There are 67 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Actor Marion Ross is 94. Author Anne Tyler is 81. Yes singer Jon Anderson is 78. Political strategist James Carville is 78. Actor Nancy Cartwright is 65. Rock musician Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers; Chickenfoot) is 61. Actor-comedian-TV host Samantha Bee is 53. Actor Craig Robinson is 51. Actor Mehcad Brooks is 42. Pop singer Katy Perry is 38. San Diego Padres outfielder Juan Soto is 24.
▶ In 1760, Britain’s King George III succeeded his late grandfather, George II.
▶ In 1848, about 300,000 people packed Boston Common, part of a celebration for the completion of the city’s first municipal water system. After building an aqueduct that brought water from Lake Cochituate in Natick, the city for the first time had a pure supply of water.
▶ In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown went on trial in Charles Town, Va., for his failed raid at Harpers Ferry. (Brown was convicted and hanged.)
▶ In 1910, “America the Beautiful,” with words by Katharine Lee Bates and music by Samuel A. Ward, was first published.
▶ In 1945, Taiwan became independent of Japanese colonial rule.
▶ In 1962, during a meeting of the UN Security Council, US Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson II demanded that Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin confirm or deny the existence of Soviet-built missile bases in Cuba;
Stevenson then presented photographic evidence of the bases.
▶ In 1971, the UN General Assembly voted to admit mainland China and expel Taiwan.
▶ In 1986, in Game 6 of the World Series, the New York Mets rallied for three runs with two outs in the 10th inning, defeating the Boston Red Sox 6-5 and forcing a seventh game; the tie-breaking run scored on Boston first baseman Bill Buckner’s error on Mookie Wilson’s slow grounder. (The Mets went on to win the Series.)
▶ In 1994, Susan Smith of Union, S.C., claimed that a Black carjacker had driven off with her two young sons (Smith later confessed to drowning the children in John D. Long Lake and was convicted of murder).
▶ In 2002, Democratic US Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota was killed in a plane crash in northern Minnesota along with his wife, daughter and five others, a week and ahalf before the election.
▶ In 2012, President Obama, seeking to shore up support among women, intensified his pressure on Mitt Romney to break any ties with a Republican Senate candidate, Richard Mourdock of Indiana, who said that if a woman became pregnant from rape it was “something God intended.” Romney ignored the emotional social issue, holding to an optimistic campaign tone as he fought for victory in crucial Ohio.
▶ Last year, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed redrawn voting maps that paved a safer path for the GOP’s slipping majority in the state.